Growing and Sewing all things Floral

Fabulous; it’s Friday and it’s raining Cats & Dogs!

by Karen B

Animals make sweet, enduring and sometimes surprising choices when it comes to the friends they choose to hang out with. Here, I capture a phone snapshot of Josef, one of my cats, on a rainy Dartmoor day with his pal, the vintage toy Scottie Dog.

All kinds of animals build little communities together which enrich their lives and ours and these relationships need space where they are free from human intervention. But on this occasion, I can’t help wondering…what are they looking at?!

Cute picture! I have never seen a scottish dog stuffed animal before now. That is adorable. We have had two days of glorious rain here. Today we had a great summer weather for Sweden’s National Day. Tonight it looks like we are going to get much needed rain again. We have had a wonderfull Friday. I hope your day has been wonderfull as well.
Honey

Thank you so much Honey. I collect vintage toys and have a whole row of them on top of my wardrobe. The more damaged they are the more I like them- it means they were very loved.
Today has been very up and down. The weather is totally devastating my garden with high winds which are breaking everything down.It makes me shed tears to see the damage. It is strong enough to wreck a greenhouse if it was not a heavy wooden one with a brick base like mine.
Lovely things have happened too…
I hope National Day is happy for you..I wonder how you celebrate it?
Karen.

How tragic to have your beautiful garden devastated by this storm. I had no idea you were have such bad weather. It must be heart breaking to think of all your hard work. I hope that the damage is not as bad as you think. You have to keep me informed on how it goes for your garden after the storm passes. If the winds are strong enough to take down a green house, It must be like a bad winter storm like we get here.

Normally we would just be planting our garden right now. Our garden has been planted really early this year because of this unusually warm weather. Hopefully you can replant what the storm has damaged. I feel like crying thinking about you just sitting and watching the storm through your window. I can just imagine how devastated we would be.

We have been out in the garden off and on all day today. I have been pulling weeds. I have been playing with the dogs a lot. Coco has just learned how to catch a frisbee… We put the Poly-tunnel up. I am totally exhausted and aching all over.

Thank you for your heartfelt message. I have been out there all afternoon, adding more stakes to tie plants up. But so many things are broken already. I do cry and now I have come in to wash my hair. It is such a bad wind that it has blown over huge terracotta pots with soil and big shrubs. It is going to be rainy and with thunderstorms tomorrow. It has been so bad that the roof to my attic INSIDE my house has been banging up and down, so the wind must be getting into the roof space. It seems an angry wind. It used to break all the glass in my aliminium greenhouse before I had this one built.
It is good to hear of you taking time with the dogs. I hope you rest now.
Karen.

Your cat and dog are both really sweet–are all cats in Devon black and white? It seems every one I’ve seen has been. I love the idea of you having an RSPCA for old toys–that’s how I feel about some of my old tattered “special needs” linens. I imagine the animals are staring in horror at the damage you described outside–I’m sure the cat feels your emotions (not so sure about that dog, though!) I hope your weather calms down and becomes as calm as the inside of your house looks!

Oh Karen this storm sounds like a very dangerous storm. Stay in doors until it subsides. We have been having more hurricane winds in the last couple of years here as well.This winter seemed to have an unusual amount of very powerful storms. Thus far that has been only during the winter months. It must be terrifying to hear the roofing giving way in such a storm.It would be dangerous for any one to attempt any repairs under such weather conditions.

Today, all is quiet. The wind just dropped late last night. It was extraordinarily powerful and confirmed what I had thought anyway, that I could never have a poly tunnel here. It would tear the cover and bend the metal. Although I know you can buy very expensive extra strong ones which are supposed to withstand a hurricane.
I can see why our forebears would have perhaps blamed the gods for creating such a wind and for thinking they were being punished and the gods were angry. It was a really aggressive, damaging wind. I am going out now to look at the damage.
I am also going to refill all the bird feeders and baths, we are all so happy now that the air is calm!
Thanks Honey, have a lovely day in your garden.
Karen

Good to hear from you. I too have been absent from my blog and really feel the lack of it. It’s so nice actually that we are such a community that when one of us goes quiet suddenly, we are missed! I hope the “mishap” has not caused too much pain or disruption to your life. Let’s hope that you get back to normal soon.

I am a Cottage Gardener with a passion for Cornflowers. Poppies and Delphiniums. I grow and sell old-fashioned, often scented flowers from a little blue shed. I also run creative Workshops. Why not come and colour, stitch or craft yourself happy in my studio which is full of vintage treasures, haberdashery and treasured finds?